This article was 1st posted on our sister Site, The Internet Of All Things.
This is a unique experiment involving students and Amazon’s Alexa Echo speakers.
The Saint Louis University, USA will perhaps be the first college or university ever in the country to bring Amazon Alexa-enabled devices into every student residence hall room and student apartment on campus.
The University said on its Website that SLU will deploy over 2,300 Echo Dot smart devices by the start of classes later this month. And thanks to a custom SLU skill deployed on each device, students will get instant answers to more than 100 questions specific to the University — from, “What time does the library close tonight?” to “Where is the registrar’s office?”
Through the SLU-specific skill, Alexa will also be able to provide information about:
- Billiken athletics’ games
- Concerts
- Major speakers on campus
- Student events and organizations
- Service and mission opportunities
- Other aspects of student life
While other colleges have placed voice services in select student living spaces or are making them available to students upon request, as early adopter of this technology, Saint Louis University’s approach is unique in that every student living space will come equipped with an Amazon Alexa-enabled device made available to students at no cost.
The SLU skill installed on Amazon’s Echo Dots was created by n-Powered, an Alexa skill development firm, and will be hosted on AWS. The University is using Alexa for Business to deploy the custom skill, to set up and manage the devices, and to enroll new users at scale, or campus-wide.
SOURCE: SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY
Image Credit: SLU
